Thoughts

This past week has been sweet! Lots of fun and have had some great spiritual experiences! We have switched up our teaching style a little bit and are trying to teach as simply as possible (because this gospel really is so simple) and it has been powerful! It makes it so our investigators are really understanding everything and feeling the spirit so strongly. One of the lessons we taught this past week we had to have one of the members translate to us her answers to our questions and any comments she had. She was able to understand us well though. We were teaching her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ very simply and at the end of the lesson in English she said, "I feel the Holy Spirit. I want to be baptised and feel this way always. I have never felt this way before." It was so amazing to hear her say that and for her to understand what she needs to do.

We have a lot of progressing investigators as well right now. Salome should hopefully be getting baptized this week! (keep her in your prayers) It has been so cool to see how much she has changed. There is a new light about her! Thumi came to church again and LOVED it! She is so powerful. Ivonne is the one that can't speak English very well. We are teaching a rugby player (oli), a singer (Tshwanelo), and their brother Bongane as well. They are way cool. We also have another part member family that we are starting to see! Things are going great in Mabopane!!

This past week I was also able to be apart of interviewing people for baptism! It was such an incredible experience to be able to have the spirit be present so strongly and to be able to represent Heavenly Father as the interviewer! The first interview was with a lady named Sophie. It was a long and great interview. She started off by bearing her testimony and as we continued to talk she expressed her life story and her concerns about feeling guilty about things she had done in the past! I was then able to bear testimony of the Atonement and was prompted to promise that those feelings would go away the second she stepped into the water! I then interviewed some kids from a part member family. One of them was a 12 year old girl named Takano. We opened with a prayer and as we began I just saw Anna in her the entire time. They liked the same things and she had the same spirit about her that the twins have. It made me a little emotional. Some great experiences that I will cherish forever!

The next part of Consecration is submitting our thoughts to Heavenly Father. Everything we do in life begins with a thought so it is so important that we learn to control them. We never do something in life without first thinking about it. Mosiah 4:30 and D&C 64:33-34 talk about how important it is. "You are what you constantly think about."

"Consecration is the only surrender which is also a victory!" Elder Neal A. Maxwell

I love you all so much!

Elder Farnes

LION Park

Baptisms

Desires

This past week has been amazing! The area is progressing super well. We were able to have Thuto's baptism yesterday which was awesome. He gave a super strong testimony and you could tell he was feeling the spirit so strongly. He couldn't stop smiling. Senzo was also able to be confirmed yesterday. He showed up in a white shirt and tie and looked like a missionary. He keeps on telling us how much he wants to serve a mission one day.

 

Sister Salome is progressing very well right now as well. She is taking everything so serious and it is so amazing to be a part of. We come to see her and she has already filled out the back of the pamphlet we are going to discuss. You can see her change every time we see her. She is truly becoming converted. Last time when we met with them the Husband at the end of lesson shared how they weren't going to make it to church. We asked why and they told us they didn't have money for transport. The transport costs about 44 Rand for both of them to get there and back which is about 4 U.S. dollars. You could tell that he didn't feel comfortable talking to us about it and he was kind of embarrased. We gave them enough money for church and they were SO grateful. They loved church yesterday.

 

One day while we were walking some lady came out of her house and yelled for us. Her named is sister Thumi. She was so excited to see us. She had met the missionaries once before and was very excited to meet with us. She came to church and is doing great.

 

We were able to do some cool things this past week as well. We were invited to a traditional wedding which was sweet to be able to see and participate in that. This morning we also went and played with some small Lions!! It was awesome! I loved it so much! One of the coolest things I have done for a P-day!

 

In distric meeting this past week we talked about Consecrating ourselves to the Lord. We discussed how there are really only 4 things that we can give to God and he requires them for our Eternal Salvation. The first one is our Desires. Some scriptures on it are Psalms 37:4, Alma 41:5, and Alma 29:4. I truly learned that we need to make our desires HIS! That is what will really make the difference in our lives!

 

"Search Dilligently your Desires, For they will determine your Destiny."

 

I love you so much!

 

Elder Farnes

Loving it!

This past week has been amazing! The area is progressing super well. We were able to have Thuto's baptism yesterday which was awesome. He gave a super strong testimony and you could tell he was feeling the spirit so strongly. He couldn't stop smiling. Senzo was also able to be confirmed yesterday. He showed up in a white shirt and tie and looked like a missionary. He keeps on telling us how much he wants to serve a mission one day.

 

Sister Salome is progressing very well right now as well. She is taking everything so serious and it is so amazing to be a part of. We come to see her and she has already filled out the back of the pamphlet we are going to discuss. You can see her change every time we see her. She is truly becoming converted. Last time when we met with them the Husband at the end of lesson shared how they weren't going to make it to church. We asked why and they told us they didn't have money for transport. The transport costs about 44 Rand for both of them to get there and back which is about 4 U.S. dollars. You could tell that he didn't feel comfortable talking to us about it and he was kind of embarrased. We gave them enough money for church and they were SO grateful. They loved church yesterday.

 

One day while we were walking some lady came out of her house and yelled for us. Her named is sister Thumi. She was so excited to see us. She had met the missionaries once before and was very excited to meet with us. She came to church and is doing great.

 

We were able to do some cool things this past week as well. We were invited to a traditional wedding which was sweet to be able to see and participate in that. This morning we also went and played with some small Lions!! It was awesome! I loved it so much! One of the coolest things I have done for a P-day!

 

In distric meeting this past week we talked about Consecrating ourselves to the Lord. We discussed how there are really only 4 things that we can give to God and he requires them for our Eternal Salvation. The first one is our Desires. Some scriptures on it are Psalms 37:4, Alma 41:5, and Alma 29:4. I truly learned that we need to make our desires HIS! That is what will really make the difference in our lives!

 

"Search Dilligently your Desires, For they will determine your Destiny."

 

I love you so much!

 

Elder Farnes

Pictures

Happy New Year!

This past week has been great! I had an awesome New Year and Elder Teerlink and I are having tons of fun together. We are being strictly obedient and just doing work!!! haha. We are pretty much the same person so it has been sweet so far. I look forward to all that we will accomplish together.

 

On Sunday we had Senzo's baptism. He was really excited for it and his sister and Mom came to watch. We also had about 4 or 5 of our investigators there to watch it which was sweet. Boipelo was able to baptise him which was really cool to watch and be apart of. I wouldn't mind if all of our baptisms were done by a member because that would mean they have a good friend and fellowshipper in the church that they can always turn to and that will help keep them on the straight and narrow path. We will also be having Thuto's baptism next week!

 

On Sunday we also had a great meeting with our Bishop. He is powerful. We are getting really close with him and I'm excited for all that is going to happen. We talked about our plan for the less actives; We sectioned off an area and are going to meet with the home teachers for that area on Wednesday and then identify which people we want to focus on and move from there. The Bishop is also going to start being apart of our weekly correlation meeting with the Ward Mission Leader and he wants to be able to get to know where the members stay so that he or other members from the ward can go and visit/check up on them. We will also start going to the weekly ward council meeting every Sunday morning which will be nice. This is what missionary work is supposed to be like. I am LOVING it.

 

In my scripture study this past week I read in 2 Nephi 9... It talka about the Plan of Salvation, the Atonement, and how Jesus Christ is the Author of Salvation. I studied just that chapter for an hour and it has become one of my favorites. It starts off in vs. 3 talking about how we should Rejoice forever in the Atonement. The Atonement really is the only way we can get back to our Heavenly Father, one of the greatest things we have. Then in vs. 41 it talks about how we will all stand before Christ and be judged based on what we have BECOME. It is so important that with everything we do that we are not just going through the motions... We need to be becoming something by the actions we do. In vs. 49 it talks about how we need to Abhorr at sin and delight in righteousness and that is truly one of the ways we can tell how converted we are. And in vs. 50-51 it invites us to Comeunto Christ and partake of Salvation. Let us all Become more like and come unto Him in 2014.

 

I love this Gospel so much!

 

Elder Farnes